Why losing my right eye was the best thing to ever happen to me

It happened 5 years ago…

I was in the worst place I had ever been in my life. (Mentally, physically, spiritually)

I was drinking red wine every single day, barely showing up to work, and lost without a single hope.

All I really wanted was a purpose.

A reason to get out of bed…

Anything.

One night a friend called me on the phone upset while I was driving with another friend of ours.

“Dude me and Maria just broke up, I need you boys here now. I already have the magic mushrooms, I just need you guys to grab the booze.” he said with conviction.

You could hear how emotional he was by the tone of his voice.

Without a single hesitation we took the next right hand turn to head straight for the nearest liquor store.

It was early January here in Canada, so the roads were icy and the trees were covered in snow. But that didn’t stop us from moving quickly.

After we got the Jack Daniels, we went straight to his place.

We could tell instantly how bad of a mood he was in…

But we were there for moral support. To let him vent.

We started playing poker after pouring our first drinks.

I did a toast telling him how the night was going to be a great time and how he was going to be better of long term without her.

Then we did a cheers.

After the 3 of our glasses clanked, he gave me a look of hopelessness…

It was clear he was hurting, but we kept on drinking.

As the night went on and we drank more whiskey and ate more mushrooms, him and I started butting heads more and more.

He was being a dick (which was fair given his circumstances) and I wasn’t having it.

A voice in my head kept telling me to leave.

We ended up running out of alcohol, so I told the guys I was going to head home…

But somehow they convinced me to stay by saying let’s grab more booze.

So off we went on foot to the liquor store. When we got there this voice came back telling me just to go home…but still I didn’t listen.

After we got back to his place we cranked the music and started playing more poker.

By the end of the night (and as we got more and more intoxicated) we ended up fighting so much it was clear I had to leave.

But drunk me decided to walk home instead of cab.

On the way home I decided to entertain a shortcut by climbing a fence.

(Not sure why this seemed like a good idea in the middle of a Canadian winter)

After I got to the top, I lost control and fell off the far side.

Now the fence itself wasn’t too high for me to be overly damaged by the fall…

It’s how I landed and on what.

I ended up falling headfirst onto a small bush.

Unfortunately in my intoxicated state, I wasn’t able to brace the fall.

One of the branches of the bush sliced my eye in half.

I was instantly blinded, but I didn’t realize the severity of the situation yet as I passed out.

I came back to consciousness after a guy saw me and woke me up saying “Dude you gotta get to the hospital, your eye is messed up!”

Confused, I wiped it and looked down at my hand was covered in blood.

It still gives me a cold rush even writing about it.

From this moment on the rest is a blur.

Next thing I remember I woke up in the hospital bed with my mom and brothers crying.

The doctor told me they did their best to save my eye, but I had to have it removed.

If I didn’t, I’d risk infection and it potentially spreading to my brain.

The rest is history.

This was a huge turning point for me in my life.

I was 26 years old and living without a purpose.

But this event changed everything.

So why was this the best thing to ever happen to me?

Because after going through something as traumatizing as this…

I gained a new perspective on gratitude and how fragile life is.

Before this I never woke up and thought “I’m grateful to have both eyes”

But now I’m grateful to have one and still have my vision.

Before this I thought I was invincible. But damn did I find out the hard way I’m not.

To this day I still wonder what my life would look like now if I had listened to that voice telling me to leave.

I also sometimes wonder what would have happened if that guy didn’t find me and wake me up.

Imagine if that was the end of my story?

Hell no.

I couldn’t let that be my story.

After this accident I started going public with my music (which I had been writing in secret for years), I launched my first business, I went to audio engineering school, and I’m now almost 4 years sober without a drink.

I straight up said “fuck it I’m rewriting my own story how I want to do it and how I want to live”.

I realized that up to that point in my life I had been scared.

Scared to go for what I truly wanted. Scared to live up to my potential.

But I was done with that.

So now I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to wait for something this extreme to happen for you to take the leap.

Build that business. Ask your crush out. Share your talents and passions with the world…

Because you get to write your own life story.

And it’d be a shame if you didn’t write the one you truly wanted.

-Darion ‘one eyed’ Rae

PS. Here’s a pic of me smiling after the surgery